It's A Complicated Life..!

by Bethany

URL: http://www.stargateslash.com/asb/bethany7/itsacomp.php
Summary: Jack is in denial and living with Sam. Daniel gets pregnant by him and Janet is the only one he confides in. Jack follows Janet on the day of delivery and watches his and Daniel's son be born
Info: Thank u, kind feedbacker called 'Wolfdoleg' (!), @ least that's ur screenname!! U know who u are! As well as thank u, I hope u enjoy this story; that it's near enough to what u wanted! Thanks 4 coming 2 me with the idea! I also thank my friend, Jan, 4 helping me get my subsequent ideas in order!

"How do I ever begin to believe that they will believe..." Daniel paused, not about to believe he was saying this, "that that alien device didn't implant this womb in me?"

"They didn't, Daniel, Janet squeezed Daniel's hand.

Daniel looked up at her. "How can I have been born like this, left like this by the automatic technology of some medically advanced but ignorant race? It's like a movie! Healed but not put back together properly, except I was!"

"That race showed us the scans, and said, is this right? This was how we found him... We realised that something was..." Janet paused.

"Wrong? Different?" Daniel bitterly interjected.

Janet continued, with a pang of sympathy, and guilt, that she'd never seen anything in the dozens of scans she'd done of Daniel over the years. It was what had made her very sceptical at first... "So, we've been told to deal with it here..."

"I'm the one dealing with it..." Daniel said, matter-of-factly. "Maybe that old story is true..." He mused.

"Which?" Janet asked, personal and professional interest piqued.

"That gay men are gay because they should have been women..." Daniel said.

"You are predominantly a male; the womb was just a mistake.... An un-needed extra, Daniel." Janet replied.

"And now?" Daniel asked.

***

"Hi..." Jack said, as Daniel opened the door to his apartment. "You said you needed me?" Jack asked him.

"Yeah, I need you!" Daniel thought, grabbing Jack and kissing him, as he shut the door behind the object of his desire. All the while, he was thinking, 'Maybe, you'll have me now... It turns out I'm a woman after all! The best of both worlds, without threatening your precious Regs, and your scared, narrow mind..!'...

Jack didn't say no. He didn't want to.

Daniel couldn't imagine Jack as anything other than a man... Maybe, if he could fall in love with another type, someone a little more like himself, where the lines were further blurred, he would find happiness... But no. For him, it was Jack...

***

"Daniel, there has been a complication." Janet stated.

Daniel still lay on the Infirmary bed, after his latest scan in preparation for the operation, in effect, the hysterectomy... "What?" He asked.

"You're pregnant. It seems those aliens may not have been truthful after all!" Janet said.

"No! No!" Daniel nearly shouted too loudly.

"It's alright, Daniel... We can deal with it, and no one hear will let anyone else feed you to the wolves!" Janet assured her friend.

"Or the lions..." Daniel pondered, quoting his Biblical History in reference to his own name, as he sat up, and looked around, in shock. "Janet," He began... "I think the baby might be Jack's..."

"Oh, alright..." Janet digested.

"The best I can hope for is that the only thing they do is throw me out of the Stargate Program..." Daniel mused...

***

Daniel opened the door to his apartment, wondering who it might be. He'd had less visitors since leaving the Stargate Program. He had done so with notes of panic, relief, grief, and fear... He couldn't speak a word, when he saw it was Jack on the other side of the door. His already queasy stomach lurched again.

"Hi." Jack said.

Daniel stood aside to let Jack enter into his apartment, unsure whether he should...

***

Daniel brought Jack some coffee.

"Aren't you having any?" Jack asked.

"No." Daniel said tiredly. He sat down, on the other sofa, just as tiredly. "Jack, why are you here?"

"To find out what the hell's going on..." Jack told him honestly.

"What?" Daniel queried.

"Daniel, you've left the Stargate Program, as far as I can tell... Rothman's taken your place on my team... But you still come back to see Janet." Jack said.

"I see her at the Air-force Hospital, more often than not..." Daniel informed Jack.

"Exactly!" Jack said, exasperated. "What's going on??"

"Jack, go home to Sam, please. You'd made your choice before that night... I should have left you well alone!" Daniel answered.

"Daniel, did I hurt you?" Jack pondered.

"Stupid question, Jack!" Daniel argued.

"I mean, that night. Daniel, did I hurt you?" Jack asked.

"No." Daniel answered honestly, but he then winced. "And before you ask, you and Sam are safe! No diseases to worry about!"

"I know!" Jack said. Janet would have told him earlier... And besides, he was more worried about Daniel. That wince! "Is this to do with what happened to you when you were healed?"

"Kind of..." Daniel replied. "But I'm okay. I won't die from it!" Daniel hoped he wouldn't anyway, but this wasn't exactly an ordinary situation. He knew the baby was Jack's. Testing had been done, but partly because he was still a little in denial, and partly because he was scared, he still wondered if the aliens had had anything to do with any of this! "Please, go home to Samantha, Jack. Please!"

"Daniel, I know I'm crap as anything else to you... But, please, let me be your friend. Before any of this, I was a good friend to you! Let me help you out in that way at least!" Jack pleaded.

Daniel figured that, one day, soon, Jack would probably figure out that he, Daniel, had had, or was having (soon) a baby, but he wasn't ready to say anything yet! He couldn't. Jack didn't even know about the womb! None of this was normal, and it had been his choice to try and have the baby... His friendship with Sam was hanging by a thread anyway, because of how Jack stood between them, and Jack had made his choice. To blow apart everybody's lives even further by dropping this non-military bombshell, what purpose would it serve..? Janet was the only one that needed to know, the one who would help him! Anyone further up the chain than him or her was keeping the secret for them...

***

Jack watched Doctor Janet Frasier rush off to the local Air-Force Hospital, where Sam's dad had been treated for his cancer. And then, set on a path that gave him a new life...

Jack was off duty, so he decided to follow Janet, rather covertly. He didn't even bother to check in on Sam in her Lab before he went...

At the hospital, he watched Janet run toward the Maternity Unit, and Delivery Suite... And, when every gowned up person had gone inside, he peeked through one of those round windows in the doors to the Delivery Suite. His mouth dropped open, when he saw Daniel, in obvious pain, sitting up on one of the bed/tables, and being helped to lay down, as Janet then moved on to prepare for an operation... A Caesarean. Sara hadn't needed one, but Jack knew that's what it must be! He sat down heavily on a seat he found in the hallway, a little further down, and his memory made him recall how Daniel had sat down so heavily, tiredly in his apartment that day; how he'd been wearing a very baggy pullover, and soft jogging pants... And, the impossible dawned on Jack O'Neill!

***

Jack heard a baby's cry come from the direction of the Delivery Suite, and he dashed down the hall, peering through the window at the end of it.

Janet saw him moments later, and placed the baby in the care of one of her team.

She went to the door, where she saw Jack, and stepped outside.

"He called me at the last minute he could. He went through most of that labour himself, got himself a taxi here... Thank God! God knows what might have happened if he'd tried to drive himself!!" She stopped for breath.

"They gave him a womb..?" Jack asked, wanting to get in there, and be with Daniel.

"No." Janet paused. "They discovered that he's always had one, dormant, a mistake of cell division at his conception, un-noticed at his own birth, and any other time, until the aliens healed him as they had found him, which meant the activation of an un-needed womb. Un-needed until you made him pregnant!"

"The baby is mine?" Jack asked.

"Yes!" Janet's anger flashed. "And don't you blame him, he was in such turmoil. Still is!"

"I wasn't blaming him..." Jack replied genuinely.

"I've done tests, Jack. You are the father!" Janet replied.

"I'm not questioning it!" Jack reaffirmed.

***

Jack walked into Daniel's private room at the hospital, a couple of hours later. He had waited. Janet was not far behind him.

Daniel was feeding his baby a bottle of milk. He could not breast feed; those, and that ability, had not come with the womb! He looked up and saw Jack, and stared back at their baby...

"Daniel," Janet started. "Jack followed me here, and waited outside the Delivery Suite. I had to tell him."

Daniel didn't speak at first. "I know..." He then said."

"Stating the obvious here," Jack breathed. "but I didn't know until then..." He stood and held his breath again...

"And now that you do, your life still does not need to change, Jack... It's going to be confusing enough for everyone, our baby included!" Daniel told his past lover. He still did not look at Jack.

"Daniel, I..." Jack trailed off.

"You can come and say hello to your son, if you wish... I know it might bring back bad memories, but..." Daniel fathomed.

Jack thought of Charlie, and if, considering Charlie's death, his new son would be better off without him anyway. Despite the pain of that, and the memories, he walked forward gently to see his baby son, while Daniel looked away, out of the window opposite his bed. Jack wiped away a tear.

Janet watched from the doorway, still too protective of Daniel to go, and allow the men any further privacy. She knew Jack would not be abusive to Daniel. Jack was a good man, but Daniel needed an ally. He was so fragile in every way right now... Everything in that man's life had been called into question, including his gender... And she would help him get counselling. She had already seen to it that he'd seen someone at the hospital, someone who had signed the Secrets Act, of course. She would also see to it that, if she was needed to, she would defend his right to keep his baby. This was his chance to have a family, and she would not see his family dissolve before his eyes for a third time...!

"Daniel, I'm sorry." Jack spoke again. "I..." He paused when Daniel looked at him, blue eyes burning.

"You're not staying with us just so that you can do the right thing! I won't allow it!!" Daniel fumed, yet still quietly, for the baby's sake...

"I won't make mistakes again... I won't let anything happen to the baby!" Jack told him.

"That's not what I meant, Jack..." Daniel assured him. "That's not just what it's about!"

"I know it's not..." Jack replied honestly.

***

Jack and Daniel's son had to stay in the hospital for two weeks, while orders came that he had to have a zillion tests, before being allowed home with his father as a free citizen.

Daniel had to go through MANY tests, too. For the same reasons!

One afternoon, as the baby slept in a hospital crib next to Daniel, Sam popped her head around the room door, and, when Daniel nodded, she sat at his bedside...

"It is you he loves, Daniel. Not me!" She said.

"You're just helping him to do the right thing, giving him his son, too..." Daniel looked at her.

"I'm not, Daniel... If I just wanted to give him a family, I could try and get pregnant, too!" Sam stated.

"I did not try to do this!" Daniel said. "But I won't regret it; I won't regret having my son!"

"Sorry, Daniel... I didn't mean it like that... Not even subconsciously!" Sam answered quickly and honestly.

"Doctor Sam Carter, you are being very good about all of this! Why?" Daniel asked, just a little bit protective of his child, but mostly through wondering why Sam was being so understanding. He had made a play for her man! He had caused him to two-time her!

"You came first... I was just a reaction to feelings he already knew he had..." Sam answered.

"Feelings that disgust him!" Daniel said sorely.

"No, they don't, Daniel!" Jack walked in.

"Did you two plan this, or did you follow a woman to this hospital again, Jack..?" Daniel asked, seeing that Janet was milling about outside the door, and he was thankful for her support.

"I didn't know Sam was going to be here..." Jack looked apologetically at both Daniel and Sam, more briefly at Sam...

"We haven't been living together..." Sam told Daniel. She got up from her seat, and vacated it, making no bones about the fact that she meant Jack to take her place... She stepped aside, and went out into the hallway, stopping momentarily to acknowledge Janet, before walking entirely away...

Jack sat down in what had been Sam's seat. "Those feelings didn't disgust me, Daniel. They never will. Never have either! Nothing we did will ever disgust me! How I conducted myself, how I hurt you, and Sam, disgusts me, all because I wasn't enough of a man..!"

"That's my line!" Daniel almost spat out.

"No, Daniel. It's mine!" Jack reached out for Daniel's had.

Daniel tensed up.

Jack backed off.

"Our son is fine... He won't ever have to worry about not being enough of a man, not like his 'mother'...." Daniel informed Jack.

Jack looked over at his sleeping baby boy, and smiled... "I honestly love you both, Daniel..."

"I know you do!" Daniel glared at him. "That's never been my question!"

"I don't give a crap what the Air-Force, or anyone else says, I'll leave all that behind to really be with you... To finally be happy, like I always have been in your presence..." Jack told Daniel openly. "I'll hang up all my guns, and my issues, to look after you two properly this time..."

"We're not Sara and Charlie, and how can you look after us when alien invasion might destroy us both, all of us, at any time..??" Daniel pointed out.

"You want me to stay with the Stargate, protect you both, let you live your lives?" Jack asked, in pain, but with complete understanding. "I'll do it!"

"It's what you're good at..." Daniel mused.

Jack turned to go.

"Wait!" Daniel called, his voice cracking. The baby stirred. He turned to look, and to pick up the child.

Jack waited, and turned back to see the man he loved with their baby boy in his arms, tears running down his face.

"It's gonna take more than words, Jack... For you to come back..." Daniel eventually said.

Jack went over to the side of the bed, and bent, despite his knees' protests.

Daniel leaned on Jack's shoulder, his baby still in their arms.

Jack silently cried, and kissed Daniel's head, his tears falling in Daniel's hair... Then, he turned to their newborn son, and held the little boy's hand so gently, feeling the child's tiny fingers try to grip his much larger finger. "What's his name?" He asked Daniel, who was still resting on him...

"Ethan..." Daniel replied. "It means strong, firm, and impetuous... Even subconsciously, I was still thinking of you..."

Jack laughed kindly. "Does he have a middle-name, young Ethan..?"

"If it works out, we could use my name, Jackson... It would honour my Dad & my Mom, and it actually does mean 'Jack's son', relevant to him..." Daniel looked at Ethan, if not to me and you..." He paused. "Bit icky!"

"We couldn't help what your surname happens to be..." Jack replied. "And you and me have never been about filling that gap in each other's lives! Never!" Jack assured Daniel it was okay.

"The name Ethan did worry me a bit, because the first two letters are E.T! Given what we... used to do for a living, and the circumstances around his conception, I don't want to make certain people even more paranoid!" Daniel said.

"You can change it, if you want..." Jack kissed his son's forehead. "But it's a cool name!"

"Maybe!" Daniel smiled at his son, and the boy's father. He begrudged how he couldn't even pick his son's name without worrying!

"If it works out..." Jack went over something Daniel said, moments ago. "Does that mean you want to..? If it works out..??"

"IF it works out, yes, Jack, I want to marry you, since we can do that these days!" Daniel asserted.

Jack kissed Daniel's lips, and then replied, "Thank you..!"

Daniel smiled. "You can get up off your knees now – They must be killing you, and you want them to keep on working so you can teach our son Hockey one day, don't you!?"

Jack laughed happily. "Yeah-sure-you-betcha!!!" He told Daniel and their little boy. There and then, he made a silent pledge, and prayed to the one God he had been brought up with himself, and still tried to believe in, as he tried to pack away the pain and guilt over everything, including Charlie still, his reason, one of his reasons now, to still try and believe in a real God...

The End

Author's Note: I make no money, and mean to step on no one's toes at all,by writing my stories... Feedback welcome as long as it is always polite.